"Classifying Dependencies"

Alastair Wilson (University of Birmingham)

Abstract: Metaphysicians typically distinguish sharply between grounding and causation, and philosophers of science typically distinguish sharply between causal and non-causal explanation, but there has been surprisingly little discussion of how exactly to draw these distinctions. In this paper I argue that all of the most obvious criteria fail to capture the intended distinction between causation and grounding. I propose an alternative criterion in terms of the source of the dependency, and explore some preliminary implications of this criterion for simultaneous causation in physics.


As pre-reading I'd suggest my paper "Metaphysical Causation"